Universal Orlando Picks Lucky Generals to Launch New Park

Lucky Generals has been appointed as the agency partner of Universal Orlando Resort, with an initial focus on launching the new Epic Universe theme park next year. The agency picked up the business following a competitive pitch against two other U.S. agencies, which Lucky Generals didn’t name. The long-term partnership will be led out of the agency’s New York office, which opened in 2019, though it will include team members from the London office as well. Lucky Generals is tasked with driving excitement and intrigue around Universal Orlando Resort, continuing to position the theme parks as a must-visit vacation destination for domestic and international visitors. “It is genuinely the exact creative opportunity we hoped for. Everyone in the agency on both sides of the water wants to work on it. They're wonderful clients already, and they share our ethos and our ambition to make great creative work and the power of storytelling,” Hollie Alexander, managing director of Lucky Generals New York, told ADWEEK. Universal Orlando Resort is currently home to three theme parks: Universal Studios Florida; Universal Islands of Adventure; and Universal Volcano Bay Water Theme Park, plus eight resort hotels. The company is launching Epic Universe in the summer of 2025, its first new domestic theme park in a quarter century. The Travel Trends You Need to Know for 2024 An Epic task Lucky Generals was approached last year through a pitch intermediary, Lindsey Slaby of Sunday Dinner, alongside two other agencies. The agency has now been working with Universal Orlando Resort for several months, and Alexander believes the company chose Lucky Generals because of the quality of the creative and that the agency is highly collaborative, without ego, which means they can work with the resort’s in-house teams as well as any other agencies that might come into play during the Epic Universe launch. Universal Epic Universe will consist of five different immersive worlds. They include the Wizarding World of Harry Potter—Ministry of Magic, Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon—Isle of Berk, Dark Universe and Celestial Park. The park is set to launch in 2025, which means plenty of work for the Lucky Generals team. And while Universal is tight-lipped on details, Alexander said the scope of this theme park is as epic as its name. “You get to step into the movies you love, you get to play the characters you look up to. It's a truly immersive experience. You’re making cool memories,” said Alexander. Lucky Generals will handle the international launch campaign for Epic Universe, with a trans-Atlantic team that will be led by Lucky Generals founder Danny Brooke-Taylor. “Universal Orlando Resort is designed to elicit big emotions, and we can’t wait to do the same through the stories we tell. To be able to make ads for a product launch like Epic Universe will truly lead to agency-defining work for our New York office,” said Brooke-Taylor in a statement. The Lucky Generals team on Universal will be led by the New York office, with backing from the London home office and some Florida-based staff. Virgin Atlantic Aims to Promote Experiences With Lucky Generals Creative Appointment Alexander said the agency normally works in a very trans-Atlantic way, including its work on Virgin Atlantic. “Our trajectory for this year is really establishing New York as what Lucky's brand in London we know and love for the last 10 years has been. We're going to build that creative storefront, so to speak … and start proving it out with the work. The creative will do its job,” said Alexander. Moving forward after the launch, Lucky Generals will continue to promote Epic Universe and how it fits into the rest of the Universal Orlando Resort experience, as well as doing work for the other properties in Orlando. Details of the long-term deal were not disclosed, but the estimated media spend in 2023 for Universal Orlando Resort is $40 million, which includes $35 million in digital media, according to COMvergence. Universal Parks & Resorts has partnered with GSD&M since 2019, and the agency will continue to work with the company.

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Universal Orlando Resort Appoints Lucky Generals to Help Launch Epic Universe

The agency will work across the portfolio of theme parks

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Kyle O’Brien